9.26.2010

Professional correspondence

I applied for an absentee ballot, so I've been getting lots of letters and brochures in the mail from candidates for the various positions up for grabs this fall.

One letter in particular got my attention, but not in a good way.

I got a letter from Deana "Dee" McDonald, who is apparently running for district judge, and it is possibly the worst-designed letter I've ever received in my life. It's really hard for a letter to be designed badly because, well, it's a letter. But trust me, Deana "Dee" McDonald knows how to abuse typography.

First of all, typography aside, the envelope was addressed upside-down. Who does that?

Here are all the problems with the letter:

1.) A serif headline with sans serif body copy. It should definitely be the other way around.
2.) She didn't bother to fix her e-mail address. It should not be blue or underlined.
3.) The typeface she used for the headline is atrocious, and the fact that the "for district judge" part is in the same horrible typeface in different sizes makes it even worse.

This is terrible and disgusting, but I'm probably still going to vote for her. She has like a thousand endorsements and 31 years of courtroom experience.